Short Journey of Many Steps

A French Farewell
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Kyra

Hiking through Lyon (no bikes this time!) we made our way to the train station with our cousin Helene and her partner Michael - (and a few extra cousins to see us off:)  We were off to Marseille, followed by Aubagne.

A Guiness in hand...

The train ride consisted of Helene and I catching up on our lives and Michael being a enthusiastic tour guide - pointing out castles and aqueducts to Rick.  We saw Mt Ste Victoire from afar - the mountain that inspired many of Cezanne's paintings...

French Culture
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Marseille is a large and lively port city, rough around the edges.  We walked through the arab district but most stores were done showing off their wares, so we headed to the old port with our backpacks and checking out the architecture - which was very cool!  This part of the city explodes with ethnic diversity and noise.  Michael took us to his favourite pub - here we were in an Irish Pub of all things, a Guiness in hand listening to Michael's stories of his Algerian father's early life in France - while street musicians punctuated the exciting narrative.  Soon after, we headed to Aubagne for some takeout Chinese Food and an evening of music at Helene and Michael's.  We spent the evening talking about theatre (Helene works for a theatre company).  Helene shared her stories of the Medieval Touring Troupe she used to work for - the pictures were very entertaining - the evening went on from there to Michael showing us his extensive flute collection - celtic instruments (a passion he shares with Rick), Medieval horns and the piece de resistance, the "corne muse" - let's just say it's a lot like the Scottish Bag Pipes!!!  He performed for us and lucky for us, the neighbour is nearly deaf... did I neglect to mention that it was midnight??

Wanna Try?
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We eventually went to bed, serenaded by Medieval music...

The next day we left for Le Lavando to meet our boat - a bus and train and 2 busses later - we reached Le Lavando - Mediterranean heaven!!